1961 Cadillac Restoration: Sweating for the wedding?

[Andrew Trout]

Hey everyone,

My Dad and I are in the process of restoring his 1961 Cadillac convertible for my wedding next September. We're...I dunno...half way done at this point? Probably not even close in terms of man-hours still to put into the car. But we're done pulling parts off at least, and are now in the process of putting everything back in/on/together.

So far we've gutted the interior. Removed the front and rear seat, and the front seat is getting reupholstered. Took the dashboard apart and had the clock, radio, and instrument cluster rebuilt. We'll be repainting the dashboard as well. Dash pad is in great shape. New sound insulation will go in, along with new carpet. New power window switches for the driver's side door, too.

Engine compartment has been taken down to the frame and firewall. We can't take the fenders off as my Dad had the car repainted when he first got it and the painter glazed over the gap between the fender and body. We've stripped the undercoating off (oh man, did that suck) a lot of parts and have had them powder coated. All new front suspension bushings, bearings, and bumpers. New shocks and coil springs. Bought a generator to replace the alternator that was on the car. We've had the carb, power steering pump, water pump, radiator, windshield wiper motor, master brake booster/cylinder all rebuilt. Had the valve springs replaced and headers, rocker arms and push rods all cleaned up by a machine shop. Ordered a gasket kit and will be replacing all gaskets on the engine. We're pretty sure the timing chain cover gasket was leaking based on how the oil pan looked when we pulled the engine. We've had to buy a new exhaust manifold (cracked) and intake manifold (cracked!) along with replacing a few other parts, like the air filter housing and seized bolts we had to cut. Junkyards...not cheap!

I've grabbed a bunch of photos from different points to share with the group, and will be working to share more as we progress.

When we pulled the seats and carpet out we found a lot of rust on the car, mainly right under the front seat where there aren't any floor pans you can buy. Compared to many other cars, it's barely any rust so I know we're fortunate. But the car has never seen salt, so it was surprising to find. Luckily for us my Dad was a welder/sheet metal fabricator for 33 years so repairing the damage is (fairly) easy for him. The hard part is around the rocker panels. We've hit a few snags with finding suspension parts, but are pushing through those as best we can. Our plan was to have the front suspension and brakes back on the car and the engine and transmission going back in this weekend, but that timeline has been blown to bits. We're just outside Rochester, New York, so it would be nice to be able to work in the closed garage during the winter months as we put the engine compartment back together and finish patching the floor. 

I've included a photo of the data plate, but it's a series 6267. Power seat & windows, radio, heater, and E-Z Eye Glass. Trim 28, and it's paint code 50. Odd fact: the car has white hubcaps instead of red hubcaps. Not sure if a previous owner (my Dad's the third owner) replaced them or what. Does anyone have insight into that? We've ordered the build sheet for the car from GM's archives, but it's still a few weeks out.


Powder coated parts


patching rust


patching rust


gutted interior


replacement part for rust


pulling engine and transmission


transmission before it went off to be rebuilt


numbers on the frame


data plate


transmission before priming


primed transmission


me painting the transmission


generator we bought off eBay


crack in the intake manifold

[Dan LeBlanc]

That's going to be a nice car when you're done.  Great progress so far and nice work I must add.

If you're going for totally authentic, you'll want to remove the red tag from the field terminal on the generator.  Starting, I believe in 59, there was a paper tag affixed to the generator.  The tag is almost always gone, but you'll find a strip of what looks like yellow masking tape.  This is actually the glue residue and leftover paper from the tag.

[62 driver]

Dan can you post a photo of what a generator with sticker should look like.  Thanks Dave

[Dan LeBlanc]

I don't have the sticker - it's long gone.  All that's left is the residue from the glue on the tag.

It was either Walter Youshock or Michael Cascio that told me about the tag.

[Andrew Trout]

Some engine work: We pulled the crankshaft to replace the rear main seal, and are also replacing the piston rings. Crankshafts...are heavier than they look.


Old rear main seal


Removing the old rear main seal. Took a little bit of picking to get it out.


New real main seal installed

Some of the last suspension parts are coming back from powder coating tomorrow, mainly the upper and lower arms, along with the crossmembers that hold the transmission. So we'll be able to get working on the brakes and suspension while reassembling the engine. After that, the engine and transmission will go back in.

All of that will start happening after Thanksgiving as I'm heading out of town. We're behind schedule, but who knows how realistic our schedule was in the first place.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Unless you have put the rear cap back on, rotate the seal so that one side is 1/2" above the face, and the corresponding end is set into the cap 1/2".

This way, when they are mated, the joints will not be aligned with the block surface, but inside the groove.

Doing this assists in sealing the seal.

Bruce.

[Bill Young]

Nice Car. On Your Body Plate 06C means Your Car was built the 3rd. week of June 1961 very near the end of production as Body 15,500 was the last 1961 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible built. Acc. E H Y means E-Z EYE Glass , Heater and Six Way Front Seat. Code 50 paint was Pompeian Red and code 28 Trim was Red ans White leather interior. Your car might also have GuideMatic Eye on the dash as Cadillac never put code U, on the body plate when power options were ordered. I Own a 1861 cadillac Sedan DeVille 4 Window in Dresden Blue.
Sincerely , Bill Young

[Andrew Trout]

Tightening the caps on the main bearing with a torque wrench. In other news: torque wrenches are fun!


Using brake cleaner to remove some of the carbon from the pistons before we replaced the rings.


Removing the old piston rings.


cleaning the last bits of carbon off the pistons before the new rings go on.

We're pretty behind schedule, so after New Year's we'll start working Saturday and Sundays on the car instead of just Saturdays. Hopefully that will help us get caught up.

[Andrew Trout]

We put parts back on over the weekend!



Our rebuilt windshield wiper motor and pump went back on the car, along with the rebuilt vacuum brake booster/master cylinder. Yes, I'm aware the grounding strap isn't connected to the body. No hoses are either. 

Early last week we sent the upper a-arms to USA Parts Supply to get assembled and the rubber frame bumpers installed. We had all the parts needed except for the rubber frame bumper, so it's mostly assembly costs for that. It still took some back and forth with USA Parts Supply but eventually they understood what we needed and we found a price that worked for us. The arms should be shipping out today, so ideally they'll be back to us by Friday December 26 so we can install them this coming weekend.

We have hit a big roadblock with our engine rebuild. Basically: It won't turn. We can't get the crankshaft to turn once we torque down the rod connectors on the pistons. When the nuts are all snugged up, but not torqued down, we can turn the crankshaft. Yes: we used assembly lube on the bearings and piston rod connectors. So my Dad's going to go talk to the local machine shop and see if they have any suggestions. My personal preference at this point is to give the machine shop the engine and let them re-build it. Remove all parts, dip the block, and built it up from there. The water jacket has a lot of sediment in it anyway, so getting the block dipped would be for the best. Plus, the engine will actually work. A small, but significant detail when restoring a car.

We're behind schedule, and further delays on the engine could be really bad. Thankfully(?) we have plenty to do while the engine is rebuilt if we go that route. Suspension, front brakes, and floor pan patching can all happen while the engine is at the machine shop.

[57eldoking]

With all the work you're putting into this car doing a complete rebuild when the engine is already out would make sense. Don't want the engine to give you a headache during or right before the wedding. I have a funny story from one of the first rides my dad and I took with our 57 Biarritz after a 16 year frame off restoration. We were driving along a back road and encountered a wedding party in an early 1920s Renault broken down in the middle of a hill. The bride's dad had been restoring the car for 5 years prior to his daughter's wedding. They were on their way from the Church to get their pictures taken before the reception and were running out of time. Realizing their situation we offered to take them to the picture location 20 minutes away. The bride and groom graciously accepted and we got them to their photographer in time. The Biarritz also stood in for the Renault as a backdrop for the pictures, a substantial upgrade in our eyes! As we were leaving the Renault showed up on the back of a flatbed, the bride's dad seemed pretty resigned. Poor fellow should have had a Cadillac! 

[Dan LeBlanc]

Just curious - what are the extra wires poking through the speedometer cable location?

[Andrew Trout]

Just curious - what are the extra wires poking through the speedometer cable location?

No clue! I'll check and see what they connect to in the car this week.

[Bill Young]

One quick thought. If you can avoid changing the adjustment of the TV Rod that connects the Carb with the Transmission that is good, as on the 1961 and 1962 Cadillac Owners Club website there has been discussion as to how sensative that adjustment is and if it is off just a little bit the car will not shift correctly.

[Andrew Trout]

Patching rust is decidedly un-sexy, but very important to do. The most vexing part about this is the car never saw salt. The first owner took it to Florida with him every winter, and the second owner only had it for a little while before my father bought it, and my father garaged it every winter. As many others have hypothesized, the car probably collected dirt and dust off the road, which then absorbed moisture and slowly rotted out the car over 50+ year.  At least it's only in a few spots. I couldn't image the work that has to go into restoring cars that were driven year-round or left outdoors for years.


Putting a patch on the rocker panel. We used tek screws and clips to hold the patch in place, and then tack welded it in place.


Patch on the rocker panel is welded into place. Now my father is fitting in a new piece of channeling. It's a game of a thousand small adjustments to get things to fit correctly. Lucky for us my father was a welder at Xerox for 33 years, so this is second nature for him. We've got a hole punch and a sheet metal brake in the basement, along with plenty of hand tools for cutting and shaping steel.


Everything is patched up though, and ready for the 'skin' to go on. 


Putting the 'skin' back on the floor. It's a weld-and-hammer approach to get the radius right. If you look closely you can see we left the mounting holes for the front seat untouched.

Engine update:

Turns out we had the connecting rods and their caps all mixed up. I was looking closely and noticed small numbers stamped on each connecting rod. Hey, these numbers should probably match up! Some rejiggering and we're able to turn the crank shaft with all of the connecting nuts torqued down. Then came the question of "Hey, because the pistons are numbered, are they supposed to go in a certain order?" (Yes, they are.) We checked the manual and yup, they are. Pistons 1,3,5, and 7 are on one side, and pistons 2,4,6, and 8 are on the other side. D'oh. Dropped the pistons out of the block, and my father raises some concerns about wear on the bearings in some of the connecting rods. So back to the machine shop on Monday to see if they can order new bearings.

Just curious - what are the extra wires poking through the speedometer cable location?

I checked into this. My father gave an "I don't know" shrug which is always exciting. I traced the wires back into the dash and as best I can tell they attach to the radio? So maybe something to do with the power antenna? I'll keep an eye on this when we start to reinstall the dashboard components (instrument cluster, radio, antenna and headlight controls, clock, etc.)

[Dan LeBlanc]

There definitely should not be any wires coming out of that hole.  All wiring comes out of one of two locations on these cars - the ignition switch harness protrudes through the firewall just behind the air cleaner, and at the bulkhead connector next to the brake booster.

[Andrew Trout]

Not sure what to say, there's always been wiring come out of there. There was even a grommet around it. You can see it in a photo from earlier in the restoration:

[Dan LeBlanc]

Someone may have added wires for something.

On cars without cruise control, the speedometer cable passes through that hole.  It is plugged with a rubber plug on cars with cruise.

[Dan LeBlanc]

While I'm thinking of it, not only do the pistons have their designated cylinders, there is also a front to rear orientation on the Pistons themselves. As well, be sure the numbers align on the connecting rod caps.

[Andrew Trout]

Yup, we found the "REAR" side of the pistons when installing them the first time, but totally whiffed on the piston numbers. Found them with the pistons in the block, so we've dropped them all out for the time being. I downloaded and printed out the cheat sheet from the 61-62 forum archives so we'll be sure to get the correct pistons in the correct cylinders when they go back in.

[Bill Young]

Andrew, I just noticed you live in Rochester New York. I lived there all my life till July 2012 when My Wife and I moved to Gainesville Georgia. If you are looking for someone to paint that '61 so it looks factory original I reccomend Tony Valentini " Tony"s Collision" on Atlantic Ave. He painted a 1968 DeVille Convertible for me in 2005 that was code 44 Chestnut Brown to color change to code 30 Silverpine green. The car took first in it's class and best of show at the Valley Cadillac , Cadillac and LaSalle Club show and when I told people it was originally a Brown Car they looked at me like I was from Mars. He and I have become good Friends over the years. He owns 2 '59s a series 62 coupe and an Eldorado Convertible .